Coping Like Family
by Agent Frostbite
Summary: It starts with Tony. It ends up with a gathering in the living room at 4 AM and a group of heroes who are becoming family.
1. The Silver Six

**A/N: Falls under Humanformer AU. Random story that doesn't fit into any storylines but was fun to write. Also, OMG my first ever try at a multi-chapter fic! Let's see how it goes. I'll try to post a new chapter once every day or so. Okay, here we go.**

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Chapter 1: The Silver Six

It starts with Tony. Tony, who, at 3 in the morning, is awoken by nightmares and flashbacks of the Battle of New York and his escape from the Ten Rings. Tony, who, after tossing and turning and offering a silent apology to Pepper, finally gives up on going to sleep and gets up to head to the living room. He's the only one out there at such an early hour, and he's a bit uncomfortable with that, but he wants to keep up his tough guy persona, so he doesn't mind.

He turns on the TV and tries to find something good to watch (but is at least partially unsucessful beacuse it's _3 in the morning_ , and literally no-one is awake at 3 in the morning so nothing good is on). He settles on some documentary about the Big Apple, and it's interesting enough so it stays on.

About a week or so later, it's Steve. He wakes up after yet another thoroughly unpleasent nightmare about falling and being trapped in the ice. He falls out of bed, struggling his way out of the sheets and blankets that have wrapped themselves around him tight enough that he's a little freaked out, but loose enough that he knows it's just sheets.

He decided he's not even gonna _try_ going back to sleep after that, so he wanders to the living room where he's slightly surprised to see Tony sitting there on the couch, watching the History Channel and something about aliens. Tony glances back and sees him, but doesn't say anything and goes back to waching TV. Steve thinks that he's here for the same reason Tony is, and the glance might've been an invitation, so he picks a chair and crashes in it, watching the TV as well.

Bruce stumbles in next, after particularly terrifying nightmares about hulking out and killing everyone. He immediately goes to the kitchen adjoining the large living room and downs about a half a gallon of water. His hair is already wet, so he probably doused his whole face in bone chilling water (Tony's seen him do it before and fully believes that it's his pull back to reality) before he even thought of coming here.

After he drinks down the last sip, his gaze finds the two men on seperate couches, watching some History Channel thing on US Government conspiracy cover-ups of alien visits to the planet. "You guys know they're probably making half of that up, right?" Bruce asks as he walks over and sits on one of the other couches.

"Yeah, but it's, like, the only decent thing on TV right now, so..." Tony remarks with a shrug and they watch it till the sun comes up and they all get to work. Bruce finds it strange how normal it seems for the other two, but doesn't ask because nobody really wants to discuss why they're out here watching crap TV every night instead of sleeping.

A few days later Clint staggers in after some horrifying dream and just collapses on one of the comfy chairs, wiping tears of panic and imagined smoke from his eyes. Not one of the other three men judge him or pry, and the TV is the only sound in the room. It's almost another week before Clint points out that they _do_ have a whole room's worth of movies that they can watch instead of sad soap operas, reality TV shows, and the History Channel.

The conversation is short, consisting mainly of Clint's idea and murmured consent from the other three. Clint comes out of the closet across the room with the first Mission: Impossible movie. Tony chuckles, Steve sighs, and Bruce shrugs his shoulders in a 'Why not?' approval. Clint puts it in and they watch the movie till Thor comes in as the credits roll and the sun comes up.

And Thor turns out to be the next one joining. He says it's not for his sake, and none of the guys ask what that means till Thor sheepishly walks in with Loki almost a week later. By then, Natasha has joined and they weren't all occupying their own chair. She and Clint shared the love seat while Tony, Steve, and Bruce took the couch where Tony had first sat a while back.

Nobody asks what Nat's nightmares are about - mainly because nobody asks what anyone's nightmares are about, period - and she never even tried to take her own seat, instead sharing Clint's as he strokes her hair and occasionally murmurs something that the others didn't catch.

There is a little tension when Loki first walks in, but he does so with his head down and he looks so exhaused and honestly scared that it's hard to turn him down. He doesn't even speak for the first couple weeks, and the first words out of his mouth are "Sorry for the New York mess," which does shock a few people. He also offers an apology to Barton for 'that thing he did,' and Clint just nods his forgiveness or acceptence of the apology.

The mood does get a little less tense after the apology, and even more so after Loki accidently falls asleep during some random movie that nobody remembers because all they do remember is him waking with a scream and clawing at his shoulder and neck, almost as if he's trying to pull something off his shoulder (Thor leaves for literally two minutes to get a drink, and _this_ happens, but not even Tony jokes about it for another full week).

Thor comes racing back after Loki wakes up and the others try to get him to remember where he is. Thor steps in front of his brother's field of view and holds his hands up, showing he doesn't have anything (the others suspect he's showing that he doesn't have Mjolnir), and Loki actually cries as he hugs his brother.

He's pretty much forgiven after that.

It's slow to get truly comfortable, but once everyone settles into a routine, it's easier. Tony's always first, waking at 3 on the dot (which is admittedly weird, because it is literally _always_ 3 on the dot). Steve is second, waking anywhere from 5-15 minutes after him. Bruce usually stumbles in around 3:20, followed five minutes later by Clint and Natasha. Thor and Loki show at 3:30, whether or not that's around when they actually awoke. Sometimes some of them sleep through the night, but usually they all end up awake.

There's always some input on what's being watched that night, and somehow, they ended up watching the whole of the Star Trek: Voyager series. It actually even gets to a point where some of them are comfortable with falling back asleep, and they find that none of them has any more nightmares that night when they do so. Which pretty much results in half the group being asleep while the others watch TV till morning.

Sometimes, when they feel like it, they'll just talk. Even Loki eventually joins in, at first with a comment here or there, but soon, he's as much a part of the conversation as anyone else. It's casual and comfortable, and they actually feel like a family, which is comforting to all of them.


	2. Second Wave

Chapter 2: Second Wave

 **A/N: Oh my God, you guys, I am so sorry! It got busy this weekend and I totally forgot about this story. Whoops! (Lucky for me, this is one of those stories where each chapter could be a standalone).**

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As new Avengers join, the night TV group gets bigger. It starts with Sam, who has nightmares about anything from Riley to being unable to help his teammates in need, and even what he did during his tours in Afghanistan. He joins, shuffling in and picking a spot on one of the couches further away from everyone where he could fall back asleep if he wanted to. Mostly he just listens to the conversation, sometimes joining or chiming in, or watching the TV when they talk (which does have subtitles because Clint doesn't always sleep with his hearing aids in and they're just more helpful and convient anyway).

Rhodey comes down sometimes as well, and it's usually when he hears someone else up and walking around because he doesn't have a _lot_ of nightmares himself, or if he does, he just doesn't say. He says he joins because he wants to be part of the 'super secret night owl club,' but the others find it too coincidental that he usually shows up when Tony's been screaming during his nightmares.

Wanda gets nightmares too, and she usually ends up tossing something from her dresser with her powers when she wakes up (she eventually breaks down and just gets a plain wooden block to put there because she gets tired of buying new alarm clocks or lamps). Pietro always joins her, and they find they particularly enjoy the gathering because it feels like a family, and they've longed for that feeling for a while.

At first, it gets tense when Stark is there (which is pretty much all the time) but Wanda forgives him when she happens to be up late for no particular reason and hears him screaming (something about people named Raza, Obie, and Yinsen), and she goes in to talk to him (only to find out all about his experience with the Ten Rings and how he ended up with the arc reactor in his chest and the redirected nuke). Pietro does forgive him as well, after he hears a tearful Wanda recount Stark's story and is shocked how moved she is by it.

Vision doesn't require sleep and decides to join them after being pursuaded by Jarvis, whose consciousness and memories were saved on a thumb drive tucked away in Tony's lab (thank God for his resistence to cleaning). He finds it intresting to listen to their conversations (and by now, unless it's a movie/episode/etc. none of them have seen before, there's always one going on) and says that he learns a lot about them and interacting with other humans by simply watching and listening to them converse.

Janet and Hank join later as well, mainly because despite having been at the Tower for almost as long as Loki, they honestly had no idea this even went on (and Jan scolds Jarvis for not telling her). Jan usually provides some kind of late night/early morning/whatever-you-call-4-AM snack to go along with their conversation and TV thing.

T'challa does occasionally have nightmares about his father dying, but he mostly joins them because the footsteps outside his door are _just_ loud enought to rouse him from sleep. The first time he followed them was out of curiosity. The other times were because he enjoyed the sense of family that the gathering had.

Carol ends up there because Bruce is across the hall from where her room is, and that guy doesn't have a single nightmare where he doesn't scream, so she just follows him to the living room and stays because why not? Her time there is split evenly between talking with them, watching TV (usually when she gets too tired to carry on an intelligent conversation), and passing out on the chair next to the TV. She's slowly developing a resistence to waking up every time the music gets louder and/or more intense during certain scenes.

When Bucky does come around and stay at the Tower, he's been conditioned to live on 4 hours of sleep, 5 at the most (at least at a time), and starts having nightmares anytime he gets past that (whether that's implanted and intentional or not is irrevelant), so he's always there.

At first, he simply stays there, eyes fixed in the TV, laying against the arm of one of the (exteremely few) couches that aren't occupied by other Avengers. Eventually, he gets comfortable enough to talk with everyone else and joke around, slowly coming back around from Winter Soldier to Bucky Barnes.

Peter joins too. It was mostly because of one bad nightmare, then Carol knocking on his door to make sure he was okay, listening to him talk about it, and telling him about the gathering in the living room. She led him there, and he was only mildly surprised to see everyone there. He quickly became part of the group.

When the team gets home from a particularly trying mission, they won't even try to go to sleep, and instead they'll crash on the couches and chairs in the living room. It's usually just a mess of people laying on whatever spot that isn't the floor is available, tangled up with one person's arm/shoulder being used as a pillow while someone else will lay on the legs of the one who's using someone's arm as a pillow (what is personal space?), because they're all just so exhausted that everyone is game to be everyone else's pillow and nobody actually really cares.

They'll all eventually fall asleep, but no-one will have nightmares. There are theories why (lack of energy, too much to process, different midset approaching the night, because they're surrounded by family) and everyone pretty much knows it's the last one, but they all silently decide that it might better they way they usually have it set up (with everyone sleeping in their rooms till they have a nightmare, then coming out to the living room). It's pretty much a guarantee that once you leave your room at night, that you really aren't going back there to sleep for the rest of the night.


	3. New Recruits

Chapter 3: New Recruits

 **A/N: You're gonna want to read either "Knock Out's Family" or my writer's bio on my profile for this to make perfect (ish) sense. And yes, I will have Optimus in this story; be patient!**

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Nikki might not have been an official part of the team (yet), but she was still like family, so she had a room there, knew all about the late night/early morning/whatever-you-call-4-AM thing and was usually there. 15 and already riddled with nightmares, she was more than welcome (and assured by everyone else that she actually _was_ more than welcome, and it wasn't obligatory) and often joined their group.

Later, when she became an official Avenger and started getting a team of her own, they showed up, too. First it was Laserbeak, because he had his own room on the other side of Nikki's, heard her screaming, and followed the (sheepish and embarrased) girl to the living room. He was shocked at the gathering and how normal it seemed, but she acted like it was normal too (and it probably was), so he joined because she looked shaken and he wanted to be there to support his partner.

Knock Out was next, having a room across the hall for when he slept in his holoform (which was fairly often because he wanted to feel included and Nikki didn't [usually] sleep in the garage), hearing her scream, and snapping awake before rushing over. Again, she sheepishly explained what was going on, and as she saw him get more and more worried, she dragged him to the living room to the late night/early morning/whatever-you-call-4-AM gathering.

Ravage found out purely by accident when he was just so exhausted that he crashed and recharged in the living room, near the balcony doors. He was awoken when Tony turned the TV on, and while annoyed that his recharge had been disturbed, he said nothing because the look in the billionare's eyes was truly haunted.

After seeing it happen one night (and being fairly surprised when Nikki, Laserbeak, and Knock Out showed up), he just stuck around. Sure, he had a berth in the room that he and Laserbeak shared - because he hadn't enjoyed the lonely feeling during his captivity in the MECH compound, and he sure as Pit wasn't gonna turn down the offer from an equally lonely Laserbeak - but he took more to recharging in the living room so that he would be there from start to finish.

Soundwave, Rumble, and Frenzy all showed up at the Tower at the same time, but it was Soundwave who first discovered the strange yet seemingly routine activity. He - like Knock Out, opting for using the holoform more often to be more a part of the team - heard footsteps passing his room and followed them. It turned out to be Nikki, Laser, and Knock Out. He watched the gathering that night, and couldn't stop thinking about it.

He actually ended up waking Frenzy and Rumble up and dragging them to the thing, which at first they weren't happy about, but then decided they didn't mind that much (mainly because they could just go right back to recharge). It wasn't long before all three were more enjoying the movies and conversation than observing or sleeping through it.

When Ripclaw and Marcus (who turned out to be Meagtron) joined, Marcus found out about it right away. And after tossing and turning and generally being unable to recharge, he shuffled down to the living room for the late night/early morning/whatever-you-call-4-AM gathering.

Ripclaw was slower. She had never been self-conscious, but every time she closed her eyes after one particularly nightmare-inducing mission, she saw the MECH compound and snapped awake. She walked to the living room, and was surprised to find that not only was literally everyone there, but they welcomed her with open arms.

When the Thunderbolts joined later, they heard from someone (inside source or out, nobody either knows or cares) about the gathering. At first, they didn't go, but after three nights of thinking about it till almost 12, Erik (he still went by Atlas in the Tower for the moment, since few knew his name) got up the courage to ask. He went down at 3, saw Tony there, and straight up asked him if they could join. Tony said it wasn't an exclusive thing and that the Thunderbolts were more than welcome to join if they wanted to.

Erik, of course, went straight up to the others' rooms and woke them up. Melissa (Songbird) hopped up right away, while Karla and Paul (Meteorite and Techno) went back to sleep. Abner (Mach IV) was curious and thus decided to join. After that night (and the next morning explaining it to the two who'd opted to stay asleep), Melissa and Erik decided to go down every other night, while Paul, Karla, and Abner decided only to go if they were awoken.

This turned out to be fairly often, as most of the Tower moving around at 3-4 in the morning tended to make a lot of noise, and all five eventually just went every night and sometimes (fairly often) fell asleep on the couches and chairs (which Tony ended up needing to buy more of).

When Peggy was brought back (technically foward through time), she went every night, mainly because she and Steve pretty much got married as soon as things had a chance to calm down, and she shared a room (and bed) with him. It was basically impossible to fall back asleep after he awoke from his nightmares, so she ended up joining him.

One night, Pepper was in the Tower, and she - already having heard about the whole situation a while ago - decided to take a picture. It has been, thus far, the only picture of the _whole_ team (she had Jarvis take the picture, and sly dog that he was, he waited till she was in it). They had it framed and hung next to the TV.

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 **A/N: In case nobody knows who the Thunderbolts are, I watch the Disney XD show "Avengers Assemble!" and they did a couple episodes with the Thunderbolts, so they snuck their way into my stories. Enjoy!**


	4. New Home, Old Habits

Chapter 4: New Home, Old Habits

 **A/N: I told you Optimus would be in this story! Although, to be honest, it's not a major role. Sorry 'bout that. So far, I haven't really tried writing him yet. It's something I'm working on tackling.**

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Of course, things changed when the Avengers more or less officially moved into the Autobot base. At first, they each tried to have their own room, but that plan was (thankfully) shot down before they went to bed by Tony seeing a spider and screaming, which drew the attention of a quarter of the base. What they really needed was a soundproof room, making for a foolproof plan. Except for the fact that some of them only went because they heard everyone else going (nobody mentioned that, though).

They eventually just found a big room, made it their common room, dragged their beds into it, and voila. It was big, (almost) soundproof, had its own kitchen, and space for a TV. They found a closet and filled it with movies and video game stuff (because watching tired Avengers attempt to play Mario Kart at 4 in the morning was a funny sight to see), while the Science Team portion of the group set up the flat screen, Wii, and Netflix. And yes, there were a couple couches and chairs (obligatory, of course).

Within two days, it looked like a room where there was constantly a sleepover going on. There were beds dragged next to each other, the floor in front of the couches, chairs, and coffee table were covered with thick quilts and comforters, pillows and blankets were lumped into piles on beds and on the floor, and there were always at least two movies and a video game lying on the shelf under the TV.

Now, in Major Lennox's experience, the only time a room ever got this messy (and it wasn't _entirely_ a mess, more like organized chaos) was when you didn't bother cleaning it up today because it's gonna be just as messy tomorrow. It never got better (except on cleaning day), and it never got worse. (Prowl still sighed and told them to clean it up, even if it was "just a little", every time he passed it, and the answer was always "Getting around to it.")

Optimus didn't understand why they'd (including Megatron and Ripclaw, which had surprised him) been so adamant about how the setup was (their own big, at least 85% soundproof room, the arrangement of the blankets, pillows, quilts, beds, everyone being there, and other such things) until he passed by it one night at around 3:30. He heard a scream, quickly followed by murmured voices for a few minutes, then what sounded like the TV playing. Then he got it.

Later that day, when the Avengers were out doing their various things that mainly involved not being in their room, Optimus switched to his human holoform and walked in. He'd seen the picture by the TV, but had never actually seen it in detail. He looked and saw it was a picture of everyone in front of the TV at the Tower, watching it or laughing and talking, and some had even fallen back asleep. It looked like a family picture, and he supposed that it really was.


End file.
